What's your favorite alternate launcher?

pianoplant@lemmy.world to Android@lemmy.world – 22 points –

Just got a new work phone: Galaxy S22. Wanted a pixel but it was out of stock in our internal allocation. Already tired of samsung's UI and interested in something new.

So what do you like? Bonus points if it works with android enterprise's profile mode dual app drawers.

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I've been using nova launcher prime since forever. Make a backup on my old phone when getting a new one, and import it on the new phone.

How do you feel about nova launcher being bought out by that data collection company?

:( I used Nova Prime for many years, and I don't like this one bit. I hope that the devs got a good payout, and best wishes to them, but it makes me uncomfortable. Luckily, while it's definitely no Nova, Samsung's launcher has finally on the most recent version gotten to a point of usability. Everything is more awkward to do, and you have to install extra Samsung apps (Good Lock with applets) for a lot of the customization, but most of my favorite features from Nova are finally there. So, for the first time in many years, I'm running the Samsung default OneUI 5.1.

Wait you don't think Samsung is collecting your data?

Yes, I do think they are, but by choosing a Samsung smartphone, I've already decided to be OK with that on some level. I turn off features that connect to outside companies for the most part, and I've chosen to believe that Samsung does what it claims with the settings that users have available to them on the phone. It doesn't mean that I'm just fine with handing everything over to any other random company. Some claims are made that Branch powers the Finder (search) function on Samsung phones, but this Finder Customization Service is a feature you can disable on a Samsung Galaxy phone. You can also turn off search suggestions for Finder. You can disable Google and Samsung's browsers and Internet searches as well. I am the sort of user who checks permissions of apps before downloading them (and disables everything I don't use), and I don't want my launcher (which I paid for) on a device I paid a not small sum of money for, to send every single tap back to a marketing firm directly.

Ok, but with even a little bit of research and looking around in Nova launcher itself, you would've found that you can opt out of usage analytics and all permissions. Branch even says this themselves on their discord.

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Nova Launcher Prime. The only one I stuck too, and never managed to leave.

I absolutely love Nova Launcher Pro. Easy to get to what I need. Also integrates with sesame and Delta icon pack.

I was a huge fan until their acquisition by the shady company. I keep the pre-acquistion version on older phones.

NOVA. Every single time I've tried an alternate launcher, I always return to NOVA within 24 hours.

Neo launcher for me. it's on fdroid.

it's not perfect and can get buggy, but once you set it up, and don't mess with the settings too much. it's acceptable replacement for Nova launcher.

Had nova prime, but switched after the buyout

Yeah... What buyout? I have it in Graphene, with no permissions granted and only as a secondary launcher while i was considering my options, since Neo sometimes doesn't update new installed apps for a while...

I like the look of Neo but it seems to crash once or twice a month for me, and resets my home home screen layout every time.

I use Action Launcher, great for doing things from your home screen without needing a bunch of widgets. Also Samsung's One Hand Operation app is a lifesaver, no need to awkwardly shift my plone down to reach the notification shade.

Another vote for action launcher. Switched back to it after Nova was sold off. I have had the same basic home screen for years now, and because everything is so easily accessible using covers/folders etc, most of my single home screen is a picture of the cat

Nova launcher, made this with it

Nova too, nice homepage, I have the same icon pack but on a boring 4x4 grid :)

You're on a fediverse app, you should know that Nova was the center of some controversy when they sold to a company that is likely harvesting and selling user data. Many have left Nova.

I've been using smart-launcher for years now, and it's what I'm used to, gestures and a nice app menu that automtically categorises applications is nice.

Seconding Smart Launcher. Automatic categorization beats pretty much every other feature I can think of in a launcher.

I try to treat my devices as commitments as far as spending but disposable as far as usage habits and not having invent my own categories helps me just USE my phone instead of playing with it.

Despite the privacy issues after the buyout, I'm still using Nova Launcher.

On the work phone I'm using the Microsoft one and it's surprisingly good too. It's not quite as customisable as Nova but it does a fair amount as well. I like the configurable leftmost screen, it's like a powered up widget viewer.

Been using the Microsoft launcher for years after leaving Nova and have to say I've been surprisingly pleased with it.

Niagara, Lawnchair, Kvaesitso, Olauncher

AIO launcher.

Looks nothing like a regular launcher, but works great for me, can have calendar, news, tasks etc all in one convenient scrolling home screen

Niagara Launcher. It's a very clean and simple launcher and perfect if you have around 8 top apps with the way it's designed, but still very easy to navigate all other apps. Definitely recommend you give it a go

Niagra Launcher, by far. It has totally changed the way I used my phone in a speedy way.

Smart launcher for me. The automatic app sorting along with its ambient theme is super awesome. Highly recommend it.

OLauncher, it's FOSS, minimalist, simple and available on F-Droid.

I really enjoyed Lawnchair for some time. Been trying Niagara for a few months as well. Lawnchair is my favorite for it's simplicity.

I've never tried an alternate launcher, do you need to root your phone to do it? And can you easily go back if you change your mind?

No need to root and you can always switch back to your previous launcher / uninstall the launcher. It's pretty much an alternative homepage and app drawer.

Then just customize it the way you like it and grab some icon packs, most of them are free or at a symbolic price

You could try Niagara Launcher or Nova, my current one and see how you like it

Since gestures don't work with 3rd party launchers, I am stuck with the default one. Hope Google fixes this issue.

Which phone?

I am not aware of any phone where gertures works well with 3rd party launchers.

Which gestures do you mean? Like edge swipes for back and swipe up for home? Works fine for me, Pixel6P using Total Launcher.

I've been using Nova for years and I have no complaints.

Sadly 3rd party launchers don't work well with widgets, at least on One UI. I found Nova Launcher to do well with gestures and animations, but it's not there yet for me. The One UI launcher works as expected but lacks the ability to change stuff like the icon shape which I don't like very much (Theme Park doesn't do it well).

I used Niagara Launcher, but it's not free, so I moved to Lawnchair 12.1. I also really like Kvaesitso launcher

I'm using Niagara, it's not free but it's only like 10€ yearly. I like it because it stops my muscle Memory from mindlessly opening stuff

I had the chance to buy a "life long" licence and I really dont regret it.

I use ADW because when I switched phones my new version of Android didn't have the carousel home screen and it was the first one I found 😅

If you want to try something alternative check out "niagara launcher". You need some time to get used to it, but the UX is really clever IMO

I use the KISS launcher. It's on both Play Store and F-Droid.

Stupid simple and really nice looking imo

The screenshots look kinda outdated, how themeable is it? the global search looks great

This is the one that I use. Don't know if it is appealing for people who like to tinker with themes and stuff though. Not much of a themes guy myself. You can tweak colors and use icon packs at least.
Maybe this screenshot of the UI settings can be helpful for you:

::: spoiler KISS UI settings screenshot :::

I use the Windows launcher, it's really smooth.

Smart Launcher for me. I've been using it since the Smart Launcher 3 days, and it's really still a launcher with no-nonsense UI that doesn't change a lot, for example you can still modify it to feel just like SL3 with the left side app menu and gestures. Plus the design language used in SL6 is just beautiful to me.

Liked it so much I bought the pro version of SL3 and later on, get the full license for SL5 (and onwards).**

Currently using and have used the Niagra launcher for years. To me, ease of use and getting to the apps I need quickly and efficiently is the most important thing about a launcher. I've tried many of the "minimalistic" launchers over time, and this is the only one that truly felt useful. I'd highly recommend it to people who just use their phone as an app launcher, as opposed to having a bunch of widgets on the homescreen or something.

Kiss launcher all the way! It basically works like the windows start menu. Type the first few letters of the app name, press enter and it starts.

You can also add keywords to apps and those will get searched as well.

It's purely awesome. And it combines really nicely with my Fairberry physical keyboard attachment.

Since i bought Niagara Launcher my phone(s) feel very fluent and contemporary. I'd say the best piece of software I bought for Android.

yep Totally, I used to swap launchers frequently but since I tried and then bought Niagara... I just can't use anything else, now a stock phone makes no sense to me anymore.

Niagara is the best! Never needed any other launcher

Second this. Niagara Launcher allows me so much easier access to apps. Cleaner home page and all apps in an easy to navigate alphabetical list. Super easy

I use productivity launcher. Its very barebones, works well, quick access to my apps and it's not bright and colorful so my phone is a little less appealing to look at and might reduce my screen time a tiny bit.

Okay, so I really really like KISS launcher. KISS stands for keep it simple stupid and that should tell you all there is to know about the launcher. It is a search based launcher, you can do quick calculations, one click call/text your contacts, configure additional search engines (eg: you can search directly on YouTube, Maps, Google or just open an url directly). No matter what I try it never satisfies as much as KISS, I find it an hassle to go through the icons searching fot your app. It is available on F-Droid

I have an S22+ and I've been using one UI for years now. What do you find inadequate about it if you don't mind my asking?

I have found samsung's software to be the most feature complete android experience so far.

I'm using CalyxOS's default launcher, but on regular Android I pretty much always use Nova launcher.

After many years with Nova, I dumped it after the sale, and tried a few. MS Launcher was pretty good, but I settled on Total Launcher.

Very, very customisable, although a bit of a learning curve. I have a feeling I'm only scratching the surface of what it can do, but that's enough for me :-)

I'm using nova but now I feel out of the loop. What sale do you mean, and why did it make you dump nova?

Not that guy, but last year they got acquired by Branch, an analytics company. Android Police article about it here. The same company also acquired Sesame of Sesame Universal Search.

To clarify, I'm unaware if they've done anything suspicious since the acquistion, but potentially giving an analytics company launcher level access raised eyebrows for more than a few people, myself included.

It used to be posidon launcher, but it was glitchy and laggy as hell, also used neo launcher, it was fine, but not really what I want. I use Lawnchair from the izzyondroid fdroid repo nowadays.

Ratio Launcher ! Nothing compares, i always end up going back to it . Not most customizable but it being well designed more than makes up for it . I hope they open source it

Looks interesting, I'll check it out! Do you like the combined messages / conversations feature?

T-UI. Probably not everyones cup of tea, but its hard to go back.

Not available on Android 13 :(

I am on GrapheneOS, based on Android 13, on a 64-bit only CPU. It is available. You might need to download it from F-Droid, I have no clue about whether the Play Store version is downloadable, as it isnt too actively maintained.

that went much better, unfortunately it seems it's not for me. despite my phone having a slide-out keyboard, it is not tenable for me to open either it or the softkeyboard just to open an app. thanks for the suggestion anyway!

I love me some Nova

I'm going to piggy back on this comment for all the people who don't want to do the research on Nova and their recent acquisition by Branch. You can opt in or out of usage statistics and all permissions in the app. The new mods on their discord have a FAQ that expresses this also. I have no way to prove otherwise but if all we have is their word then you should take all apps usages disclosures with a grain of salt.

Edit: funny enough I just installed and read the first few paragraphs of Niagra's privacy policy which says it collects and shares user analytics. To each their own I guess.

Protip: If you are somewhat skeptical of the Branch integration, you can disable network permission in Android for the Nova Launcher. It doesn't need to connect to anything to work fine generally speaking. Without network permisson, the launcher can't send anything to the internet.

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Neo Launcher, it's the closest think to Nova, but there is still a lot of bugs.

I just replaced Nova with Neo after trying several from this thread. The only bug I've seen has been renaming folders. But other than that it has been smooth sailing. Thanks for the recommendation. 👍🏻

I still have the app icon disappearing when you update it bug. Plus the in general unpolished feel of the app.

For free I can't complain, but it's not as smooth or as polished as Nova... Yet

No it's not as polished as Nova and it looks like it hasn't been updated for a while. Do you know of another launcher that has "Cover mode" where the first app in the folder is displayed and other apps are displayed when you swipe up?

Lawnchair Launcher. But the version they have on GitHub.

I would use Pixel Launcher if it was possible to remove this silly, oversized, search box from the home screen.

Says not available on the play store... So I see what you mean. I'll try to grab the GitHub version

I use Niagara Launcher mostly for the minimalist look. But also because Nova was bought by an analytics company a bit ago.

I installed it but def need to give it some time. Pretty confusing at first. Seems like a super neat idea though! How long did it take you to get used to it?

I have been using Niagara for a couple of years now, and I have absolutely fallen in love with it since.

I went to check it out and was so happy with the idea and the first impression that it gave me that I went ahead and bought the lifetime premium for it hoping to customize it to my tastes, only to quickly learn they are very anti-customization.

Damn I really hate opinionated software.

Exactly what I did and went back to Nova after a couple months

I've been rocking OLauncher for a few months now, I love it. Cutting down the extra noise on my home screen felt good.

Got my Pixel 7 yesterday and love the stock launcher, but I just can't stay away from Niagara. It's just too efficient